How To Make Your Own Balsamic Ketchup

I have a deep love and appreciation for ketchup. (You’ve seen my Cranberry Chipotle Ketchup recipe, right?) So naturally, when I saw that Heinz was introducing a ketchup made with balsamic vinegar, I decided that I needed to try it immediately. And then I found out it wasn’t available everywhere; it seemed the stores I frequent are not stores that carry it. Obviously, I had to try to make it myself. Obviously!

I adapted this balsamic ketchup recipe from Serious Eats’ Homemade Ketchup. Are you ready to make ketchup? Let’s get started!

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until just beginning to brown, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add minced garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds.

Add the tomato puree, brown sugar, vinegar, tomato paste, salt, mustard, cloves, allspice, and cayenne pepper to the saucepan and stir. You need to be stirring it or the tomato sauce will bubble and gurgle and spatter all over your stove. No one wants that! Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Partially cover to prevent aforementioned spattering and simmer for about an hour (or until mixture has thickened to the consistency of ketchup).

Use an immersion blender to puree the ketchup until smooth. Alternately, you can dump the contents of the saucepan into your blender or food processor and puree it that way.

Eat your ketchup. Eat it with fries! Eat it with tater tots! Homemade ketchup is much more tomato-y than the kind you buy; the addition of balsamic vinegar gives this ketchup a depth of flavor you don’t get in regular ketchup. It goes well with just about anything, but we really liked it with sweet potato fries.

Comments

I really should try homemade ketchup because the store-bought leaves me cold and is way too sweet. This looks like the perfect recipe to start with (although your chipotle ketchup might have to be my first…) Love this sweet potato fries. Have you ever tried them with aioli?

I do like the bottled ketchup, but after I started making my own, I really began to notice the sweetness and lack of anything even resembling the flavor of tomatoes. I still eat it, but I definitely prefer homemade. And it’s so easy too!

I am not a fan of aioli. 🙂 I think it’s the fact that it’s in the mayo family that puts me off!

Immersion blenders are seriously the best kitchen invention of the past decade. Or whenever they were invented. I don’t know! But they’re great. My regular blender broke and I didn’t even replace it because between the immersion blender & the food processor, I didn’t need it.

When I heard that Heinz was coming out with balsamic ketchup I thought it sounded delicious (also, it would allow me to indulge my love for ketchup and still look like a fancy grown-up haha). I have yet to try it from the store, but this recipe looks fun to make and obviously a lot fresher than the stuff in the bottle!

Yeah, I heard it was being rolled out on Facebook first (so you’d have to mail order it) and then it would be in some stores. I think that was supposed to be in November? And I still haven’t seen it anywhere! So 😛 to them, I just made it myself.

The fries are frozen! 😀 We went to BJ’s this weekend and my husband insisted on buying three massive (26 serving-size!) bags of fries there. So I think we will be having fries with every meal for the next few months.

No, it definitely doesn’t keep as long as the store-bought kind! I usually divide my batches into a few small freezer bags or bowls; I keep some in the fridge to use within a week, and the others I freeze. It’s not as convenient as the bottles you buy, but it tastes better so it’s worth it to me. 🙂

Looking forward to trying this recipe! I would suggest using a Balsamic with much more age to it than 4 years, look for Balsamic aged at least 12 or more years, age makes the Balsamic sweeter in taste, thicker in texture and darker in color.

I just tried a sun-dried tomato ketchup recipe that was a disaster (yeah, that cup of apple juice to 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes was a dead giveaway but I went on with it anyway…might be able to turn it into some sort of bbq sauce). Had to make up for it by whipping up a batch of this/your balsamic ketchup, which always makes everyone happy. We prefer it slightly less sweet so I don’t pack the brown sugar, just loosely scoop it. Delicious! Sometimes I split a batch and add a little chipotle pepper in adobo sauce to half (now I need to go look at the cranberry ketchup). Every time I make this, I wonder why I don’t ALWAYS have homemade ketchup in the house. Yum!

I agree–homemade ketchup is the best! 🙂 I’m glad your family enjoys this recipe. The cranberry ketchup is definitely different than the traditional kind, but we love it, especially on sweet potato fries.

Will definitely be trying this out. I’m going to try sealing it in jars (pint) to see how it stores that way. Freezing it just doesn’t sound appealing to me; I had visions of it separating or something horrible…Anyway, the recipe sounds fantastic!!! Thanks!!

I freeze homemade ketchup all the time without issue–it doesn’t separate, I promise. 🙂 If you’re canning the ketchup, I’d look for a recipe that’s specifically meant to be canned. I don’t know all that much about canning, but I think acidity levels need to be pretty precise to can things safely.

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